Easter Eggs

Martha has an old magazine with a collection of colorful easter baskets. My favorite has always been the blue! This year I finally got around to making my own. Here's Martha's original:



Supplies:
egg boxes (I guess that's what we'll call them. I found mine at Michaels)
two or three shades of blue paint
white glitter
mini faux flowers
hot glue gun

First you will need to paint your eggs. While the second coat is still wet, add the glitter. 

When you are waiting for the eggs to dry, cut your lil' blooms off of your faux flowers.

Choose a pattern to put your blooms on your eggs. Then, using your hot glue gun, glue them onto your egg. This one is for my mother at Easter brunch. I put little name tags on each and filled them with our family members' favorite candy.

Three doggies will be at our house for Easter brunch too. Can't forget the doggies!

They're ready for my guests! These were so simple to make (albeit messy!) and turned out so beautiful.

Here's a closeup of the pretty blue eggs.

....I'm not sure I want to give them away now that I see them all together...hmm maybe they can eat the treats and give me back my eggs! No..no Martha would frown on that. ;)

McKinney Trade Days

This last month Erik and I headed to Third Monday Trade Days in McKinney, Texas. The big deal around here is Canton, but before we took that on we decided to warm-up :)

We picked up a darling mirror, lil bitty pink plate and two hanging bottle openers. Those are all in the works. I'll show you their fates in a later post.

Here are some of our favorite finds:

 
 
 



Who doesn't need a giant triceratops? The giant, yet colorful pile, is a variety of things cast in iron (this is where we picked up some bottle openers-they just put me in the mood for an IBC root beer!). I'm loving the oriental vibe of this side table. Erik was coming up with every last place for the wooden mantel. Our actual fireplace already has one we love. There was a lot to browse, but it was clean and not overrun (we went on Friday). If you're interested, the next few dates are:

May 13, 14, 15

June 17, 18, 19

July 15, 16, 17

For specifics check out their website.

Love Affair

with Tortoise

It is so pretty and preppy! Any way to wear tortoise and I'll take it:

sunglasses

hair accesories

belts

My FAVORITE shoes :)

 earrings

My current tortoise obsession:

Don't you love this watch?? I've been wanting one of Michael Kors' cute watches..plus this one is TORTOISE!

Anthro-Inspired Sandals

When I saw these beauties in Anthropologie, I fell in love! Then, I saw the price. $98. For some sandals?! I understand paying money for a good pair of shoes...but seriously?

Unfortunately, I couldn't stop thinking how much I needed them. So, I decided to make some of my own.

My supplies:

1/4 yard of blue seersucker from my friendly JoAnn's

1 sheet of felt

2 pins from the HobLob

Needle and thread

Good ol' E6000

Doo-dads from old costume jewelry

And....

a pair of sandals from Old Navy for a much cooler $20!

I put my flowers on pins instead of directly onto the shoes. This way I can put them on a sweater, t-shirt, purse...whatever! The first thing I did was cut out two felt circles about a inch in diameter each. Next, I cut out eight pieces of seersucker (1 1/2" by 4").  To make my seersucker less floppy-for lack of a better word- I starched my strips. I arranged four in an asterisk pattern and put my felt circle on top. I used my needle and thread to sew them onto my pin. Repeat with your other four pieces and felt circle. Once that was super duper secure, I put some E6000 under my felt circle to attach it even more to my seersucker scraps. Finally, I picked out a few doo-dads from my Grandma Irene's costume jewelry. Those were stuck on top with some E6000 as well.

Here's my version of these Anthro's super cute, super expensive sandals:

I LOVE THEM!

Spring Mantle...again

Well folks, I finally figured out my moss "B." HobLob has this convenient moss in a sheet. Obviously, my dehydrated moss was a little too organic for this project.

(just ignore the photographer here..shoulda taken a pic of it NOT on the mirror)

It is still nice and simple. With my new *really beautiful, incredibly awesome* bookshelves, too much on the mantle just looks messy.

The best part is still the flowers!!! Yay for spring blooms!

P.S. To see my original moss "B" craft fail check this.

The Princess and The Pea

This is hands down the best recipe Giada de Laurentis has come up with yet! It is delicious!

I have spent the majority of my life HATING peas. Back when I was forced to eat peas by my parents, I would ask my dad to give me a bowl of ones that were still frozen. I thought that way I could taste them less. My whole life I've pretty much been a diva about food. It keeps me from eating a lot of stuff, but also makes it hard for me to choke down "diet" food. I need my Coke to have all the sugar and calories it can hold.

Erik isn't a big pea eater either and he isn't that picky (ask his brothers about the time they told him some dog poo was raisins...). The point is: we both LOVE this dish. I mean literally, we battle for the leftovers. You have to try it.

Find the recipe here.

Spring Mantle and Craft Fail

I finally have enough blooms on our flowers to cut some for the house! It's time to put together a springtime mantle. I knew right away I'd be bringing out this beautiful bird:

Around 3 years ago, I bought this watercolor from a local artist. The first thing that grabbed me was the colors. I love combos of blues and reds (any shade). The other reason I had to get it was the name: "Spring's Promise." That's exactly the way you feel when you start hearing the birds singing and see tiny bits of green popping up.  

I added this little nest with robin's eggs. When we were little, Lynn (sis) and I would get really emotional when we found the shells of robin's eggs.  Erik doesn't like birds. They freak him out. Being a biology teacher (and knowing all the germs carried by birds) kinda ruins some stuff.

Then came my favorite part-the clippings. Don't worry fellow Texans, the bluebonnet clipping is from my yard and therefore not from the sin of cutting wildflowers from the side of the road.

The last part of my mantle was going to be a moss letter copied from Pottery Barn. The day I first saw those moss letters I knew blogland would be full of them soon! I picked up some dehydrated moss from the nursery, a big wooden "B," and some ribbon. Here's what I ended up with:

YUCK! How horrible is that? The plan was for it to hang on the mirror. Instead it ended up like this:

Torn apart

I'm saving the parts for another project. I really, really hated my moss letter. Our pocketbook can't just pick up one from Pottery Barn. I'm going to let this one go. 

Here's our final spring mantle:

Simple is good....right?